A sham marriage fixer who arranged fake weddings including his own has been jailed.

Krisztian Kokeny, 35, of Holland Street, Bolton, lined up sham marriages between Hungarian and Pakistani nationals in return for cash.

Bolton Crown Court heard that Hungarian national Kokeny even arranged his own bogus ‘wedding’ with 28-year-old Rabia Ahmad in February 2013.

He also acted as a fixer for the ‘wedding’ of 27-year-old Pakistani and a 25-year-old Hungarian in July, 2013.

Acting on intelligence received, specialist Home Office Immigration Enforcement investigators disrupted the ceremony before it began. Kokeny and the two who were to ‘marry’ were arrested for conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration into the UK.

Kokeny was jailed for two years and ten months after admitting the offence.

David Magrath, from the Home Office’s Immigration Enforcement team, said: “These individuals were prepared to marry people they barely knew in an attempt to cheat the immigration system. In Kokeny’s case the weddings were simply a way of making money.”